(ANSA-AFP) - ROME, AUGUST 17 - The German director WolfgangPetersen, who achieved international fame with the films "Infinite Lastory '', '' U Boot 96", "Lethal Virus" and "Air ForceOne" but also the most recently "Troy," died of pancreatic cancer, a spokeswoman said.
He was 81 years old.
Petersen, who directed famous Hollywood actors including Clint Eastwood, Dustin Hoffman, George Clooney, Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt in a career spanning five decades, died Friday in Los Angeles.
Born in Emden, Germany, in 1941, Petersen achieved his first major success with the World War II submarine thriller "U Boot 96", adapted from a novel of the same name about the Battle of the Atlantic.
The film earned him two Oscar nominations in 1983,
including best director, and Petersen made his first English-language film - the children's fantasy film "The Neverending Story" - the following year.
He moved on to Hollywood's hideous action movies in the 1990s, working with Eastwoode John Malkovich in the murder thriller "In the Sight Center" and directing Hoffman in the pandemic-themed "Deadly Virus".
Glenn Close, who starred opposite Ford in Petersen's "Air Force One", told AFP that being directed by him "remains a special memory."
"Even though the script was electrifying and incredibly intense, I remember a lot of it, especially in the scenes around the huge table in the War Room," he wrote.
"My memory is of a man who is very eager to live doing what he loved to do," Close added.
In the 2000s, Petersen directed Clooney in "The Perfect Storm" and Pitt in "Troy".
He died in his residence in Brentwood, Los Angeles, in the arms of his 50-year-old wife, Marie Antoinette.
Petersen also leaves behind his son Daniel, his wife Berit and two grandchildren, Maja and Julien.
(ANSA-AFP).